Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan speaks in Lok Sabha during the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, in New Delhi on December 15, 2025. Photo: ANI/Sansad TV The Central government on Monday (December 15, 2025) proposed that the new Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) Bill, 2025, which seeks to overhaul India’s higher education regulatory framework by replacing the University Grants Commission (UGC), be sent to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) with members from both Houses. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday (December 15, 2025) afternoon tabled the Bill even as MPs from across Opposition parties opposed it, arguing that the Bill represented “executive overreach”, subjected higher educational institutes to “pervasive executive control, graded autonomy, intrusive compliance requirements, severe penalties, and closure powers”, and went against the principles of federalism. Opposition MPs from Kerala and Tamil Nadu objected to the nomenclature of the legislation, arguing that by choosing to name the Bill and the new authorities proposed in it in Hindi, the Union government was “imposing Hindi” on non-Hindi-speaking States.
Published: December 15, 2025 4:42 pm
Source: The Hindu — Read original